Saturday Night Live preview: Charles Barkley expectations
Take, for example, with politics. Can they make fun of Donald Trump if they really want to? Absolutely, but we would also contend that there is no unified thing at the moment to make fun of Trump for. He’s certainly done his fair share of noteworthy stuff, but is it more than prior weeks? Not so much. Really, the main reason to bring him in tonight is because he and Alec Baldwin are at the moment in a minor social-media feud. You can read a little bit more about that over here, but the easiest way to sum this up is that Baldwin seems to want to keep playing him just because it needles Trump to a great degree and he wants to be there to see it through.
The larger selling point for casual viewers right now is the presence of Charles Barkley as host, which is mostly surprising in that this is far from his first rodeo in the gig. The promo below makes it sound like this is Sir Charles’ first outing but it’s actually the fourth. This guy is actually one gig away from the five-timers’ club! He’s done a fine job over the years, but he also says it himself in the promo: He’s not a comedian. There are limitations that come with bringing someone on board who really doesn’t do this sort of thing on a regular basis.
The biggest appeal that comes with bringing Barkley on board is simply this: The last time that he hosted SNL the show drew enormous ratings — maybe that was due to it airing after a big college football game, but we’re going to find out soon. In general athletes do tend to get big numbers; the struggle is finding ones who can deliver a decent show and also ones relevant enough to make it worthwhile.
What do you want to see with Charles Barkley hosting Saturday Night Live? Be sure to share some of your thoughts right now in the attached comments!
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